with the beatles

actual photo of george harrison meeting the quarrymen

i found out earlier today that this was the act that immediately followed the beatles on their first ed sullivan show performance and honestly this should be just as famous

“The impact of the Beatles — not only on rock & roll but on all of Western culture — is simply incalculable. And as personalities, they defined and incarnated ’60s style: smart, idealistic, playful, irreverent, eclectic. Although many of their sales and attendance records have since been surpassed, no group has so radically transformed the sound and significance of rock & roll. As musicians, the Beatles proved that rock & roll could embrace a limitless variety of harmonies, structures, and sounds; virtually every rock experiment has some precedent on Beatles records.” -  The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (2001)

You know the reason The Beatles made it so big? ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’. First single. Fucking brilliant. Perhaps the most fucking brilliant song ever written. Because they nailed it. That’s what everyone wants. Not 24/7 hot wet sex. Not a marriage that lasts a hundred years. Not a Porsche, or a million-dollar crib. No. They wanna hold your hand. They have such a feeling that they can’t hide. Every single successful song of the past fifty years can be traced back to ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand.’ And every single successful love story has those unbearable and unbearably exciting moments of hand-holding.

March 1965 - George lighting Pattie’s cigarette at the Edelweiss Hotel in Obertauern, Austria - no tags!

The Beatles gather for a private early screening of the Let It Be film on the 20th July 1969. On the back row are Paul and Linda, Ringo and John and in front are George and Pattie with George’s dad, Harry and George’s mum, Louise (just on the edge of the photos, sitting next to George). After the screening John, Yoko, Paul and Linda and some others get something to eat. I believe these photos were taken by Yoko. 

Contact sheet, Fiona Adams, 1963

OFFTOPIC: Unseen pictures of Paul McCartney, taken by his wife Linda, in 1969.

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Paul with  Diana Ross and the Supremes in 1968..

Pic: Mike McCartney. 

The Beatles on the Champs-Elysees, Paris © Chris Smith, 1964.